With the voter registration deadline approaching, the number of registered voters has ticked upward on neighbor islands and dipped on Oahu compared with figures tallied two years ago.

The deadline to register to vote in the general election is Monday.

County clerk offices on neighbor islands are reporting slight increases in registration numbers compared with 2012, a presidential election year.

Hawaii County Elections Administrator Pat Nakamoto said the registration tally, as of Monday, was about 105,000, slightly ahead of 104,323 from two years ago.

Maui County Elections Administrator Shirley Magirifuji said voter registration there was 86,570 as of Thursday, while Kauai County Elections Administrator Lyndon Yoshioka reported 41,666. Both of those figures are ahead of 2012, when registrations were reported at 85,053 and 40,738, respectively.

Meanwhile, registrations were down on Oahu. As of this week the city had registered 470,468 voters, compared with 474,554 in 2012, said Glen Takahashi, Honolulu’s election administrator.

The state Office of Elections has planned a "drive-thru" voter registration event for Monday at various locations. A similar event in July for the August primary election registered about 1,200 voters.

The drive-thru event allows individuals to drive to designated locations and register on the spot.

"We hope people will take this opportunity to register to vote," Scott Nago, chief election officer, said in a news release. "It’s quick and easy. Just stay in your car and an election official will have you registered in minutes."

Registration aside, the larger issue has been getting the registered voters out to vote on Election Day, said John Hart, chairman of the Communications Department at Hawaii Pacific University.

"I don’t know anyone that knows the answer to the magical question about why people don’t vote here, let alone the even more magical question, How can we get them to?" Hart said. "It’s been a problem. It will be a problem."

Hawaii voter turnout, among the lowest in the nation in recent years, reached its lowest point in 2012, at 44.5 percent, according to the U.S. Elections Project.

But while turnout has foundered, early absentee voting by walk-in and mail has proved to be popular.

In August, with storms threatening to disrupt the primary election, more than 160,000 people voted ahead of time, with absentee voting up at least 11 percent in Honolulu and an estimated 12 percent statewide. It was the first time more people cast early ballots than voted on Election Day.

Early voting has steadily increased with each election cycle — about 41 percent of the votes cast in the 2010 primary were absentee, and 44 percent in the 2012 primary.

Walk-in absentee voting begins Oct. 21, and the deadline to request an application for a mail-in absentee ballot is Oct. 28.